Uncategorized

After the busiest year ever [P.S. I say that every year] I’m confronted by the season in more ways than one.  Hot on the heels of my winter fuel payment comes the glorious Advent Celebration @ St Aidan’s with the choirs of Bankside, Hillcrest, Hovingham and Chapel Allerton Primary Schools.  St. Aidan’s Church, the most … Read more

The early evening of 16th October saw the launch of ‘A Bench for Billie Holiday’ at the iconic Leeds Library, a hidden treasure in the centre of the city.  I had been giving myself a stern talking to in the preceding days, and trying to manage my own expectations of the event by saying from … Read more

Apparently, it takes me three years to come up with a new book. I hadn’t realised this until my publisher pointed it out.  My first collection ‘Some Things Matter’ was published by that miracle of Yorkshire-based  publishing Valley Press in 2012.  Then came ‘Cinema Stories’ in 2015 written with the brilliant Otley Town Poet, Matthew … Read more

At the splendid Civic Gallery in Barnsley from the 13th October is an exhibition from artist Liz West who grew up in the town. Entitled Colour Field, it runs all the way through to December and includes Our Spectral Vision, which was originally commissioned by Natural History Museum, London and Our Colour Wheel; a project that … Read more

I’ve been involved in several LGBTQ events and workshops over the last few weeks in Leeds and Barnsley, with adults and young people.  Never seeing myself as a ‘gay writer’, more as an artist who happens to be gay, I found myself telling stories about my experiences over the last fifty years, acting as a … Read more

Yesterday I cycled along the canal from Kirkstall up to Rodley.  It’s a regular commute for coffee or lunch at The Railway,  [or if we go the other way to Granary Wharf in  central Leeds] for a bunch of us, shall we say, older cyclists, with the glamorous soubriquet of The Rusty Wheelers.  On one … Read more

By the side of my computer is a pile of papers which represent two years of work, two years of new writing. The papers have been annotated by three excellent writer friends of mine who gave up their time to read through my work and then in a slightly terrifying two hours over a cup … Read more

Much of my job as a writer tutor is to bring inspiration into the classroom or workshop.  Sometimes I take groups to galleries to look at another art-form, sometimes I bring an object or an image with me to challenge my classes with something new and engaging. I have an office full of fascinating objects … Read more

Two writing projects stand out in the last month; three sessions writing narrative poetry with the excellent Year 5 at Weetwood Primary School here in Headingley and a sonnet writing session with ‘more adult’ writers on ‘Super Sonnet Saturday’ at The Ropewalk in Barton-upon-Humber one morning a few weeks back.  Both sessions had common threads.  … Read more

I have just come back from a week in Cyprus working in primary and secondary schools on British military camps up and down the island. School days start early in Cyprus and there’s a two-hour time difference, so Monday morning found me getting up at 6am (4am at home) to be ready for my lift … Read more